Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Free Meal Planning Printables

I'm still plodding along in my living room. Until I have something to show, here's a handy tool I whipped up that may be of use to my fellow meal planners.

I'm not a very good planner so this little project was a bit of a stretch for me. I came up with this when I first started couponing. I didn't want to fall into the trap of buying things just because they were a good deal. These lists help me buy only what I need. They also save me from having to run out and make special trips because I don't have an ingredient for a meal I decide to cook.

First I look at what's on sale and what has the best coupon match ups and then I choose which meals I'm going to prepare for the week.

I made the list of meals because it always took me so long just to get ideas of what to cook. Now I have all the old standbys in one place and plenty of room to add new meals. The printable above is blank so meals can be filled in. The PowerPoint printable which is below has the lists of meals that I cook a lot and it can be altered.

After I've picked which meals I'm going to make, I write down which meal I'm going to cook on which day. Then I scan the pantry and fridge to make sure I have all of the ingredients for each meal. The items on the list are items that are needed for the meals I commonly make plus staples like olive oil, eggs and bread.

The process of meal planning takes me a while, especially when I'm also couponing. However, I've found that the time and effort is well worth the money that's saved.

I've uploaded two different copies of the meal planner. One is a PowerPoint file and doesn't look that great, but it can be altered. The other is a PDF file and it can't be altered, but it looks better. Click the pictures above to download the PDFs or click here to get the PowerPoint version that can customized.

3 comments:

I have planned my meals for years, but I really like the form that has the meals on the left and check boxes in the middle. Watching those extreme coupon shows really inspires me, I'm going to have to employ your system.